A 44-year-old man was arrested in York County on Saturday afternoon and charged with a sexual offense involving a child.
According to the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office, deputies were dispatched to the 200 block of Old York-Hampton Highway for a possible burglary.
They found a green Saturn sedan parked in an alley between a garage and a residence. A suspect, identified as 44-year-old Melvin Lamont Randall, was acting suspicious and detained on scene.
When more deputies arrived, they found a 7-year-old girl putting her clothes on in the backseat of the car.
After further investigation, Randall was arrested and charged with Taking Indecent Liberties with a Child by Person in Custodial or Supervisory Relationship, which is a felony.
The female victim was known to the suspect. This is an active ongoing investigation.
NewsChannel 3 has confirmed that Randall was arrested in Williamsburg in 2006 and charged with Aggravated Sexual Battery, but the charge was dropped because of a jurisdictional issue.
Randall had also been arrested in Newport News for Sexual Battery around the same time. The charges in that case were dismissed but court clerks said they did not know why.
A Newport News mom says she was shocked and angry when she saw Randall in the news again. She says Randall sexually abused her daughter years ago when she was ten.
"It was just, it was a living hell," the mother says.
She says at the time, Randall was the youth pastor at their church -- Faith Alive Outreach Ministries, and he had taken the kids to the movies.
"They were at Kiln Creek movie theater, watching Veggie Tales, and there wasn't a lot of seats so he told my daughter to sit on his lap and that's when the sexual assault took place on my daughter," she says.
NewsChannel 3 tried to reach out to Randall at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail but he declined requests for an interview.
Anyone with information on this crime or any others is asked to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
